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Equipping those at the coal face
This month’s Update focuses on help for churches in starting to reach out to Muslims – a new resource, a new working group for the Network and a local group’s story. Happy holiday reading! In case you missed it, you can find previous Network updates here.
Update #14 for August from the Mahabba Network
A recommended resource this month
‘Inviting Muslims to Church: How to Plan and Hold a Guest Service for People of Islamic Faith’. This concise booklet is based on real life experience of running guest services for Muslim friends in a pre-dominantly White-British church. It discusses practical questions and the issues that arose among church members. As well as explaining the rationale, it gives two tried and tested message outlines. Find out more here.
The Sharing and Strengthening Circle
A new Network working group, is up and running looking at how churches can be equipped in ‘Sharing Faith and Strengthening Followers’. The intention and desire is to enable local trainers to come alongside church leaders and others responsible for outreach. By building relationship together we can see how best to serve with training in both
A local group’s aims and experiences
(Continued here from part-one last month.) Equipping those at the ‘coal face’:
“Our Mahabba group separates meeting for equipping from the weekly prayer times which devote the full ninety minutes to prayer. Several people are keen for equipping but can’t attend the prayer times.
“We meet as a larger group every two months to consider and discuss an issue currently relevant to Muslim ministry in our city, occasionally with an outside speaker. This “Faith Sharing Conversation” is not a theoretical talking shop, and was started as a partnership with Mahabba and the CofE in this diocese.
A few example topics include:
Honour and shame in the lived experience of Muslims and in our ministry to them
Persecution experienced by new believers and how to grapple with the complexity of some issues while still standing with them and walking alongside
Evaluating equipping tools for our churches
Mental health issues in ministry to Muslims, ex-Muslims, and our best role in that
The journey and dynamics of mobilising Christians to include Muslims in their loving, gospel ministry
Considering the difference in women’s lived experiences of Islam and the different dynamics when relating and witnessing amongst men and women
Spiritual life issues around the Muslims we are likely to engage: Sufism is prevalent in our area, whether as devotional faith or occultic syncretism
Equipping the Church
Most of us involved in Mahabba are engaged in specific ministries in the city and will often do something in joined up fashion with each other. Outreach projects are usually practical or wholistic in nature, such as job seeking, English skills or other social engagement that gives opportunity for loving relationship among limited segments of society.
We are also trying to build a culture of gospel ministry that is not project-based but comes through whole life discipleship. We agree that every Christian should be growing in confidence in God, living it out in their weekday context, and speaking about it in a way that is natural and clear. Some of us are involved in equipping the church and coaching those in congregations to take incremental steps of engagement.
We encourage churches to make use of courses such as Friendship First and Joining the Family but have found limited uptake unless we organise and run it with or for them. We’ve offered Encountering the World of Islam a few times, with profound results for participants.
We also encourage churches to use courses available in their networks which develop confidence, discipleship, and empowered ministry, and then to consider the Muslims in their neighbourhood and city as they implement what they learn.
Many are being equipped to utilise Discovery Bible Study (DBS) through actual use. They are learning to “be in” the Bible story, hear what God wants to say, consider how to obey, and share the stories as they “live out loud”, much as Jesus did. It’s wonderful to see the lights come on and people empowered to live out faith in action and words of grace. It’s not unusual for Mahabba people to exclaim “I’ve never seen that in Scripture before!”
We really need to help local churches increase their capacity if they are to participate well in the breakthrough we are praying for!”
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P.S. As a network from the grassroots to the regions, Mahabba is making an impact through its work. Read about how we are putting our financial support into action: Even now, can we give thanks?